A new, and rather appealing conceptual view of the beginning of the universe sees it not as a sudden explosion from a tightly compressed singularity, but squeezed out of a black hole.

I feel much better with that. It seems like an infinitely more friendly start, not unlike our personal organic transition into existence. Our Great Mother Hole had a cosmic contraction, and there we are.

I’ve always said it is a friendly universe. They say we lost a dimension in the process. I don’t miss it at all. It’s a matter hardly worth d’ mention.

The word “creation” is slightly misleading, I think. It implies something not existing, then existing, which of course is impossible. Something existed which changed form into what we now know as the universe. Some of what it was before might still be there inside that 4-dimensional space uterus, but we can’t go back in and find out.

There is not a sadder conflict in the world than that between Israel and the long-oppressed Palestinian people, nor one more divisive. This is true whether, as now, there is ongoing bloodshed, almost all Palestinian blood, or when there has been relative calm and minimal violence.

It is sad because the oppression and the violence is so unnecessary, and incongruous. Despite the length of the conflict, it could begin to heal tomorrow if only the Israeli government would let it. But they will not, unless far more pressured by the US and others.

TRAVEL ANNOYANCES

Taking a week off and looking around the northern parts of Arizona is a mostly relaxing experience, but at the moment I am furious at the management of Quality Inn in Flagstaff. It is not about the construction and the noise, but about a deliberate and unacceptable act: they “filter” the wi-fi internet. Censorship of the kind one hears about in dictatorships does not belong in the United States. They are so deviously nefarious as to filter any proxy server sites that could normally avoid the blocking. Avoid staying in a Quality Inn. The company is being run by authoritarians intent on denying the freedom to read and view what they disapprove.

When I partition myself, subdividing my mind like a hard drive for multiple operating systems and data types, I do myself a disservice, I have come to realize.

I have a political side, and that is of paramount importance. If what I write can reach other minds to increase their understanding, and by so doing strengthen the political cooperation of the common people, I may make a positive difference. I believe it is increasingly vital that such a difference be made.

But, in the venues where I concentrate those messages, I neglect my creativity, my humor, and my interest in other matters. And I have neglected this WordPress blog, partly because I find its interface less friendly than other sites. But, other than my actual website, http://www.cosmicrat.com, which is itself partitioned, I need an outlet where I can express my integrated self.

That, of course assumes that I have such a self.

What is a Cosmicrat? http://www.cosmicrat.com/cosmicrat.htm That should serve to introduce myself to those unfamiliar. It describes an outline of my political philosophy, but also my concept of BEING in general. Details will follow. If d’tails went first, then we would be backing up, wouldn’t we?

Cox Cable Company raised my rate once too often. I don’t mind paying them for internet, but their TV charges were much too high. The only problem was, since the switch to digital, it was the only way I could receive TV at all on my analog thrift-shop portables.

My decision to save money required an investment: a new HD digital television. The $100 I spent on the 19-inch set would be more than paid for in two months of non-cable. It was a brilliant plan.

It was a brilliant picture, too, compared to what I had been watching before. I hooked it to an antenna I had made years ago, which consisted of an old pair of rabbit ears mounted on a 20-foot length of PVC pipe attached to the side of my house. Perfect reception.

I have fewer channels than I had with cable, but broadcast TV has more choices than it used to. PBS alone has excellent programming that I had been missing, and a on couple of channels I can travel back in time, watching shows from the past, some of them so many decades old I barely remember them. Car 54, Get Smart, Green Acres, Honey West, Burke’s Law, Lost in Space, Dobie Gillis; the list goes on.

I’ll miss MSNBC and CNN, I’m sure, though I can catch the good parts online. So far, though, I happy with broadcast, where the future meets the past.

My sewer line stopped up. At stake were not just my own slow flushes, but the happiness of the tenant who rents my back house. My hand snake wouldn’t budge the sludge, so I called a plumber. His powered professional poop pulverizer pulled out a tangle of tampons and clipped the roots that snagged them. “Sewer mice”, he called them. Those came from my tenant’s drain, and after paying my plumber, I made it a point to inform my tenant that tampons should never be flushed, period. She promised not to. A few months later the problem recurred. I called the plumber back, and again he arrived with his drain-cleaner machinery and cleared the way. Again there were sewer mice, though not as many, but he told me that the other part of the problem, the roots that catch their little tails, should not have regrown that quickly. There must be a flaw in the line where a thirsty tree was re-inserting its tendrils. Digging up the pipe and fixing or replacing it would be expensive if he did the job, and more work than I wanted to do myself. I asked him about root-killing chemicals. His suggestion was salt. Trees don’t like salt water, he told me, and would stay out of a salty pipe. Adding rock salt to my toilet tank would make every flush a saline solution. This inexpensive suggestion appealed to me. Since then I have kept a container of rock salt next to my toilet, and I add a cupful to the tank each time I flush. So far, so good. If my plumber’s solution proves effective in the long run, I will indeed deem him a wise man…the salt of the earth.

I am accustomed to hearing a wide variety of cat sounds from the several felines who consider part of my house their home. But there was something unique about what I heard as I woke up this morning.

“Eep, eep…scramble-scramble…eep eep!” I decided to investigate.

There is a small round wooden table that was originally a spool for electrical wire. It has a large hole in the center and a smaller round hole, about 3 inches in diameter, near its outer edge. The sound in question was coming from a kitten who had gotten her head stuck in that hole. She was trying to pull it out, or alternatively to go forward to pull her whole body through it. Neither was working.

This is never supposed to happen to a cat. Their whiskers are supposed to be an accurate gauge of the width of an opening through which their heads and bodies will fit. Presumably this is instinctive knowledge, or else it is taught by mother cats at an early age. This kitten forgot, and obviously regretted her error. Still, if her head fit going in, it should fit pulling out, but even with my assistance that didn’t seem to be the case. I decided that lubrication was needed– not lotion, because cats will lick off anything that gets on their fur. It should be edible. Margarine. I buttered the kitten’s head and the edge of the hole with it. The fit was still tight, but a few minutes of gentle pulling from above and pushing from below finally freed the feline. She looked relieved, grateful, and oily.

Her mother, who wasn’t sure of my intentions at first, meowed “Thanks”.

The nationwide heat wave has given the rest of America a taste of a normal Phoenix summer. Fahrenheit 110 or 115 is common. In the Celsius world (everywhere but the US) that would be in the 40’s. Our heat is something even Republicans don’t mind sharing.

Though we’re used to it, July is not a good time for a swamp cooler motor to quit, as mine did. Most coolers use a standard type motor, varying in horsepower and one or two speeds, but all mounting alike, running the blower with a belt drive. Almost any hardware store sells them.

Mine is different. It was made by Hampton Bay, a company that mostly produces ceiling fans. They decided to get creative. Then they lost interest and discontinued it , as well as any replacement parts one might need. The motor was smaller in size, and drove the blower directly. It also spins in the opposite direction.

After a fruitless search for a motor with that specification, I decided on my favorite course of action: improvise.

I bought a standard cooler motor and attached the blower drum to its shaft. Due to the reverse spin direction, it had to go on the opposite way, which meant that the securing allen setscrew ended up next to the motor, inside the blower drum. The only way to tighten it was to use a long-shafted allen wrench through a space between blower blades, with a squint and a flashlight.

That problem solved, the motor had to be mounted on the opposite side of the blower shroud to blow the right direction. I constructed an improvised mount out of an old heavy steel computer case (it had originally housed one of my IBM 8088 PC’s). Wish a little experimentation (well, maybe a LOT of experimentation) the motor hung solidly in place.

Turned on, my new motor blew even harder than my old one, which was no surprise, since it was twice its size. I happily relaxed in front of its cool breeze.

My carefree coolness lasted until I got my next electric bill.

I have had other coolers using the same size motor or larger, and they didn’t use nearly as much power. The problem, I concluded, is that this one was turning the blower directly, but the normal configuration is by a belt drive, with a small-to-large pulley, reducing the speed, which allows the motor to rotate with less effort. The faster blower speed was adding more resistence, causing the motor to draw more power.

I formulated my plan for next year, to reconfigure my cooler with a belt drive. Parts for that standard system are readily available at the hardware store.

PART 2: 2012

After meditating and procrastinating on this project all winter, I was mentally prepared to begin the project as April temperatures approached 100 F. (about 38 C.). The standard cooler shell is roomier inside, with space for the motor an top of the blower shroud. On my more compact cooler, the motor would have to be mounted externally, with an opening through which the belt could extend to the blower pulley.

This I saw as an opportunity to correct a design flaw in the standard cooler. Placing the motor inside the evaporative chamber subjects it to high humidity, a mist of calcium-laden water droplets that encrusts the motor with deposits, which shortens its useful life. A better design would place the motor in a separate compartment, outside the corosive environment.

The first step was to place the blower on a shaft with a pulley at one end. I bought 2 spiders, Y-shaped mounting supports with a shaft bearing in the center. The smallest shaft is 3/4 inch in diameter. The motor shaft, which the blower had been mounted on, is 1/2 inch, which meant that I needed to turn a 1/2 inch hole into a 3/4 inch one. A few hours of rather noisy reaming with a dremel did the trick.

Cutting the belt hole in the thick steel shell was a bit much for a dremel’s cutting disk. I had to use a larger cutting wheel and my drill. Then I constructed a motor mount from some of the many pieces of wood and metal piled in my back yard. I could have bought a standard mount, but I like to improvise. With a bit of finagling and adjusting, I had the motor turning the blower smoothly. I covered the motor with a heavy steel box to protect it from the occasional desert rain. Wired and reassembled, it was ready for a trial.

It worked even better than I expected. It was just the right airspeed, and it ran quieter than it ever had; quieter than other standard coolers as well. The cooling effect was excellent. A few minutes in front of it made me chilly.

Time will tell whether I have solved my power-consumption problem, but I’m optimistic about that, too.